


Interference

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen, I wanted to make a Death (comma) Major Character pun in the character tags, alas that punctuation isn't possible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 18:48:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20087020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Apologies for antagonising the Guardians - it’s just what I want to see!Jack is chosen as a Guardian when there is no crisis/emergency going on. As such, the others have less sense of urgency and interest getting Jack to take his duties seriously. Bunny obviously detests Jack, and can only see the boy’s addition as an unwanted nuisance. He refuses to spend any time with Jack*, is cruel to him when he has to, and if there’s a party/meeting with the Guardians and the boy’s there, he won’t go.For the other Guardians, Bunny is more important than Jack, and fair’s fair, he’s been there the longest. They start having celebrations and meetings without inviting Jack, for the sake of ease...[cut for length]"*waves cigarette holder at door while holding this prompt* “Kevin, take this away. Tell them anything you like–what? They’re already gone? Very well. Death shall not be parental, he shall be a skeleton, and he shall be Jack’s friend. No Guardians shall be present in the fill. We shall focus only on Death’s understanding of the situation based on Jack’s relation of it. And I shan’t put an ounce of blackice of any sort in it.”





	Interference

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 8/8/2016.
> 
> Here's the rest of the prompt, by the way:
> 
> "...Jack of course knows, but is too upset and humiliated to confront them. He instead runs to the one person who has always been there for him: Death**.
> 
> So I know that Jack isn’t technically dead now, but anyway. Death has always been aware of Jack. He felt so sorry for the boy that he took him under his wing. Death comforts Jack and persuades him to continue finding his centre, even if he disagrees strongly with North’s cold indifference. The boy can then get himself more known, seen and won’t be so lonely.
> 
> Pitch shows up, aware of the new Guardian, and begins encouraging Jack’s desire for revenge. Death chases him off, but Pitch becomes enamoured with Jack and continues hanging around. They can get together at some point or not. Death is more sympathetic with Pitch than most, but is protective of Jack, maybe even after Pitch stops trying to manipulate the boy.
> 
> * If you want Bunny to seem like less of a douche, you could have it that he’s seen Jack hanging around Death, and so he feels good reason to not trust him.  
** I do not mind what form Death takes. He can be a skeleton, a corpse, a man, a woman or anything. I’d prefer that he’s just a guy/girl/whatever just doing their job, but he can be darker if wanted. He’s also kind of misunderstood by some spirits.
> 
> Basically Death kind of adopted Jack years ago, and when the Guardians (not motivated by crises) becoming cold and dismissive of Jack, he is there to comfort and dissuade him from giving into Pitch’s suggestions that he join him as revenge.
> 
> Please no non-con or dub-con! The Guardians can be redeemed or not. Jack is still a bit of a loose cannon but he trusts and loves Death and doesn’t want to disappoint him."

Death folded his skeletal hands and waited patiently for Jack to come to the end of his rant about the Guardians, about Pitch, and a number of other matters that related more or less closely to such topics. Waiting patiently was something, at least, that he felt confident in. Listening, however, required much more effort, and by this point, Death had to admit to himself that he could not fully untangle all of Jack’s arguments or grievances.   
  
He suspected this had to do with the fact that Jack was a highly emotional being, and Death was very much not. He didn’t have emotions frequently enough to develop strategies on how to identify and appropriately experience them. Possibly, he realized now, this was why he had invited the confused, recently dead but somehow not requiring Death’s services, Jack Frost to come with him for a bit of conversation all those years ago. It went against the habit of non-interference that had served him in good stead for his entire existence.   
  
And now it seemed his impulsive decision was, in fact, the cause of a few of Jack’s problems. Death gathered that Bunny did not trust Jack primarily because Jack was frequently seen in Death’s company. Death did understand that he wasn’t the sort of company a Guardian of Childhood was expected to keep, and that even though most beings should understand that of all parties he was perfectly neutral, he hadn’t bothered to address any sort of reputation he had developed over the millennia. Nothing people said about him affected his work in any way, and so, why spend the time countering any assumptions at all?  
  
But now there was Jack. And if the Man in the Moon had really chosen Jack, then Jack deserved a fair chance at being a Guardian and finding his center like the others.   
  
Death didn’t sigh, because he didn’t have any lungs. But he did reluctantly come to the conclusion that something would have to be done, and that he would probably be the one to have to do it, even though all his habits and all his knowledge of himself tried to drag him away from that conclusion.  
  
This was what friendship did to a being. It made them do all sorts of things contrary to their nature. It was highly strange and uncomfortable, and Death resolved even more strongly to have a word with everyone vexing Jack because maybe then Jack would end up with more friends than just Death. Not that he didn’t want to be friends with Jack. Not being friends with Jack struck him as a bad thing. It was just that, well, he was so used to thinking of nearly everything as neutral, and he didn’t know if he could take the strain of it, stretching out into eternity, along with his other duty.  
  
“And so I just—I just don’t know what to do!” Jack finished.  
  
Death nodded. “This isn’t my area of expertise, either,” he said. “But I will go and clear up the misconceptions that I can.” He looked away as Jack’s mouth dropped open.   
  
“But—but you’ve always said—people get awfully touchy when you go to interfere in anything,” Jack said.  
  
“Very true,” Death said. “Very true. But it does not affect me whether people are touchy about what I do. It does affect you. And so, yes. I am going to interfere.” He looked back to Jack. “I might be worried about all this. It’s hard for me to tell.” He paused. “Do you think you will still be my friend after this, no matter what happens?”  
  
“Of course!” Jack said at once.  
  
Even if Death had been fully in touch with his emotions, he might have had trouble working out his response to that simple assertion. 

**Author's Note:**

> Tags and Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> #kevin isn't very good at screening these #I'm not sure if he can read
> 
> bowlingforgerbils reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
Four things, in order of importance:1. I love how you wrote Death’s POV.He’s a friend and concerned without being emotional, but at the same time not being cold or pathological with his lack of emotion. Nicely done!
> 
> 2\. The first thought that springs to mind on how Death can “interfere” is having a long talk with Sandy after Pitch “kills” him. And Sandy being a captive audience can’t just space out and ignore Death like he usually does.
> 
> 3\. I picture Kevin as either Chris Hemsworth’s character from Ghostbusters or one of North’s elves. :)
> 
> 4\. WTF is up with people making the Guardians into antagonistic assholes??? Actually, I do know WTF is up. They are so enthralled with Jack or Pitch (or both) that they can’t tolerate the fact that the Guardians weren’t 100% nice to them. Never mind that they are the good guys and their only faults are getting too wrapped up in their work and some (admittedly contrived) miscommunication. They hurt Jack’s feelings, they must pay! :P


End file.
